CINCINNATI, Ohio---During her coaching career, University of Cincinnati head golf coach Janet Carl has won many awards, but none bigger than her most recent honor. This week, Carl was named the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) National Coach of the Year, an award presented by Etonic.

Carl will receive her award on Sunday, Oct. 22 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A welcome reception and awards ceremony will be held at the kick-off to the 2006 LPGA T&CP National Team Championship.

"It's an honor and it is kind of a shock," says Carl. "When I look at the list (of past winners), I find friends, colleagues and mentors. It helps me realize that the techniques that I have developed and believed in really work and really do improve players."

Director of Athletics Mike Thomas says that "Janet has done a great job of moving our UC golf programs forward. This national honor is a great tribute to Janet's reputation on the national golf scene and to the job she has done with our student-athletes at UC".

During the 2005-06 season Carl led the women's squad to three team titles, while coaching Hillery Wilson to four individual crowns. Cincinnati's success has continued this fall as the Bearcats have won three team titles along with three individual crowns. UC's win at the Lady Irish Invitational in September was the biggest in school history.

Carl became eligible for the award after being named the LPGA Midwest Section Coach of the Year last week, an honor she also earned in 2003.

"She's just a great coach," Wilson says of Carl. "She's a motivator and I have learned so much from her on and off the course."

Carl led the UC women to fifth place in the BIG EAST Conference last spring and had three players finish in the top 20. The Bearcats also set a new school record with a low team round of 295.

"I got the award early on in my tenure here as coach and that was part of the shock," she says. "It makes me feel like we are accomplishing some things here at UC early on and we can just get better."

Carl, who is also the head coach of the UC men's squad, knows that both teams will continue to grow and become great programs. One of her techniques as coach is to sit down with each player and discuss realistic goals for their season and then begin to set up the groundwork for the season.

"I feel that setting goals for ourselves makes a difference," Carl says. "Sometimes we get there, sometimes we fall short and sometimes we exceed it, but it's good to have that measure of where we are and where we want to go."

This award will also bring some well-deserved notoriety and respect to the school and the golf program.

"I think that this award provides UC with a spotlight," Carl says. "It shows me that we are being noticed and that we are knocking at the door of the NCAA. It will also help to get some good recruits to look at the University of Cincinnati."

This award definitely means a lot to Carl because she is such a relatively new coach here at UC. She has been able to improve the program every year. There is no limit to just how good the Bearcats can be under the tutelage of Carl.

"She definitely deserves this award," Wilson adds. "There is no other coach in the nation that has done the things that she has done. She's just a great coach!"